Russia To Increase Data Audits In 2016 With Data Localization Law & More News On The EU's Safe Harbor Ruling

Russia announced its plan to increase data localization audits in 2016 pledging to conduct around 1,000 data localization compliance audits and 2,000 monitoring procedures, under Russia's data protection authority, the Roskomnadzor. This stems from Russia's data localization law which came into effect September 1, 2015, requiring that all companies that collect or process personal data of Russian citizens, process and store that information on servers in Russia. Companies also have an obligation to notify the Roskomnadzor of the location of these servers. Although the law has been in place for some time now, uncertainty remains as to the full extent of enforcement action that may be taken against non-compliant companies.